1. Field
The present art relates to an information providing system, program, and method which provide knowledge information accumulated in a database and, in particular, to an information providing system, program, and method which effectively realizes accumulation and utilization of knowledge information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as a result of the advance of high-mix low-volume production, a business organization generally progresses development projects for similar commercial products parallel to each other. In such an environment, a know-how obtained in development of a certain product may effectively be utilized for development of another product to enable to efficient development the other product.
To accumulate and share know-how information a knowledge management system is developed. The knowledge management system accumulates various know-hows in a database and searches the database for a know-how required or requested by a user.
In a typical knowledge management system, a user performs a search using search keys such as a keyword, a registrant name, and a registration date included in the knowledge information. The user must select an appropriate search key to refer to necessary knowledge information.
An appropriate search key selected by the user can be selected based on understanding of the user related to a knowledge management system and knowledge information to be searched. However, the user rarely understands both the knowledge management system and the knowledge information to be searched. Therefore, the typical knowledge management system does not efficiently provide knowledge information required by a user.
When a user cannot acquire necessary knowledge information or when necessary knowledge information is buried in unnecessary knowledge information, the user cannot refer to the necessary knowledge information. When the user registers knowledge information in the typical knowledge management system, the user must demonstratively perform an operation of registering the knowledge information. For example, the user sets an appropriate keyword to search for a particular knowledge information by considering a state in which the knowledge information is used when registering the knowledge information. Alternatively, the user inputs the knowledge information on the basis of a standard format regulated by the knowledge management system in registration of the knowledge information. The possibility of using the knowledge information registered on the basis of the standard format in the future is unknown. Furthermore, a user having knowledge information to be registered in the knowledge management system is often busy because the user holds an effective knowledge. For this reason, an operation of continuously registering the knowledge information is difficult. Therefore, knowledge information is not easily accumulated in typical knowledge management systems.
When a large number of pieces of knowledge information are accumulated in a knowledge management system, excessive knowledge information may be required to be searched although a search using an appropriate search key is performed. As a result, the user may miss genuine useful knowledge information. One way of solving this problem is to systematically arrange a large number of pieces of knowledge information registered in the knowledge management system into a smaller number of pieces of knowledge information. However, this operation requires an operator having a wide knowledge related to a field described in the knowledge information and a number of operations to refer to a large number of pieces of knowledge information.
As described above, there is a burden on the operator to continuously perform operations, which especially becomes problematic when the operator is busy.
The disclosed technique solves the problems caused by the above discussed typical technique and other systems in order to cause a design support system such as a three-dimensional CAD to effectively handle knowledge information. This technique automatically searches for, accumulates, and arranges pieces of knowledge information in use by a design support system to effectively utilize knowledge information useful to a user.